There are many steps in planning, developing, and opening a grocery store. We are learning a lot and wanted to share a critical aspect of our development work–the development of our floor layout and inventory.
Our store has about 1,500 square feet of usable retail space. With a small store like ours, every inch of space is important and requires careful planning. Some of this space will be a bathroom, an office, and our checkout counter area. The remainder will be retail space with shelves, refrigerators, and freezers.
To create the plan for how to use the space best, we started by developing a floor plan, placing where our shelves, refrigerators, freezers, and checkout counters will go. We shared our plan with our architect, who further refined it to ensure the space is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. After purchasing our used shelves from JOANN Fabrics & Crafts’s liquidation sale and ordering our refrigerators and freezers, the floor plan was adjusted to account for the actual measurements of our product shelving and displays. The next step was planning what we would put on the shelves.
The development of our inventory has been dependent on the amount of shelf space and the items available from our food distributors. One challenge with our small size is that some food distributors do not fulfill smaller orders. So, we had to find distributors that do, get the list of products they sell, and decide which products we would like to carry. Currently, our grocery inventory is over 600 items and is likely to increase by the time we open.
With a floor map and inventory, we then estimated how many items can fit our product displays. To do that, we learned to create a planogram. A planogram is a detailed diagram or model that specifies the exact location of products on shelves or in displays. As we developed our planograms, we looked at which items go on which shelves, which items are placed together, and how many total items can fit on our shelves. This has helped us further refine our inventory and also improve our floor plan.
We are excited to show you our final product soon! Stay tuned for more information about LNPK Grocery. Sign up for our newsletter and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!